DownWithTyranny!

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis

Saturday, June 29, 2002

[6/29/2012] Preview: Italy! (continued)

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As I wrote, "we have one conductor born in Switzerland, one in Siberian Russia, and one in Hungary (Budapest, in fact)," and our recordings of Tchaikovsky's Capriccio italien were presented in that order.

The Capriccio Italien, Op. 45, is a fantasy for orchestra composed between January and May 1880 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

The Capriccio was inspired by a trip Tchaikovsky took to Rome, during which he saw the Carnival in full swing, and is reminiscent of Italian folk music and street songs. As these elements are treated rather freely initially he intended this piece to be called Italian Fantasia. Tchaikovsky even uses as the introduction a bugle call that he overheard from his hotel played by Italian cavalry regiment. Another source of inspiration for this piece are Mikhail Glinka's Spanish Pieces.

The premiere was held in Moscow on December 18 of the same year; the orchestra was led by Nikolai Rubinstein. Although Tchaikovsky wrote to his patroness Nadezhda von Meck that the work would be successful (the piece was praised by most critics). By the time he came to orchestrate the work he expressed doubts about its musical substance.

Dedicated to Karl Davydov, the Capriccio was later arranged by the composer for 4-hand piano. A typical performance lasts for around 15 minutes.

Note the wrinkle in Isolde's vengeance plan: What she has in mind is "death for us both." And she's, um, dead serious. It's not her fault that the plan hits a snag. Now let's proceed with our gallery of avengers.

Hell's revenge seethes in my heart,Death and despair burn about me!If Sarastro does not through you feel the pain of death,then you will be my daughter nevermore.Disowned may you be forever, abandoned may you be forever,destroyed be forever by all the bonds of nature,if Sarastro is not through you made pale.Hear, hear, hear, gods of revenge,hear a mother's oath!

I feel bad about just plunging us into this great narrative, in which Isolde, on board the ship on which Tristan is transporting her from her native Ireland to Cornwall to marry his uncle, King Marke, fills her trusted sidekick Brangäne in on her history with Tristan. I was going to edit out just the hair-raising curse to which the narrative builds, but that would have defeated the point. While Isolde is indeed extremely angry (to put it mildly) in the early scenes of Act I in which we meet her, at least as angry as the Queen of the Night (who, by the way, also has her reasons for being so wrathful), in this remarkable scene Wagner nevertheless provides a delicately nuanced presentation of her deep anguish.

ISOLDE: As they laugh and sing their songs at me,I well could answer too: how a boat,small and frail, came to Ireland's coasts,and in it lay a sick and stricken man, near to death.Isolde's art was made known to him;with healing salves and soothing draughtsshe faithfully tended the wound that tormented him."Tantris," which with studied guile he called himself,Isolde soon recognized as Tristan,for into the sick man's sword, in which there was a notch,there fitted exactly a splinter that her skilled handhad first found in the head of the Irish knightsent home to her in scorn.A cry arose from my inmost being!With the gleaming sword I stood before him to avengeSir Morold's death on him, this overweening knight.From his couch he looked up,not at the word, not at my hand,but looked into my eyes.With the gleaming sword I stood before him,to avenge Sir Morold's deathon him, this overweening knight.From his couch he looked up,not at the sword, not at my hand,but looked into my eyes.His anguish touched my heart.The sword -- I let fall!The wound inflicted by MoroldI healed, so that in healthhe could travel homewardand trouble me no more with his gaze!BRANGÄNE: O wonder! Where were my eyes?The guest whom once I helped to tend?ISOLDE: You heard him praised just now:"Hail! Our lord Tristan!"This was that wretched man!With a thousand oaths he sworeto me eternal thanks and fidelity!Now hear how a hero keeps his oath!He whom as Tantris I released unexposed,as Tristan he now boldly returns;on a proud ship with a high prowhe requests Ireland's heiress as bridefor Cornwall's weary king, for Marke, his uncle.Had Morold lived, who would have daredto offer such an affront?For our vassals the Cornish princesto seek Ireland's crown!Ah, woe is me! It was Iwho in secret brought this shame upon myself!Instead of wielding the avenging sword,I let it fall harmlessly!Now I must serve our vassal!BRANGÄNE: When peace, reconciliation and amitywere sworn by all, we hailed the happy day.How could I have foreseenthat it would cause you such grief?ISOLDE: Oh blind eyes! Credulous heart!Despairing silence, feeble courage!How differently Tristan paradedwhat I had kept concealed!She who in silence gave him his life,from the enemy's fury quietly hid him,who silently lent her sanctuary to save him,both her and all that he abandoned!Boasting of victory, glorious and bold,loud and clear he pointed to me:"There's a treasure, my lord and uncle;how about that for a wife?This trim Irish girl I'll bring back to you;knowing well the way,with a wave I was off to Ireland;Isolde -- she's yours!What a splendid bit of adventure!"Curse you, vile creature,a curse upon your head!Vengeance! Death! Death for us both!BRANGÄNE [impetuously and tenderly embracing Isolde]:O sweet one, beloved! Dearest! Beautiful one!Golden mistress! Dear Isolde![She gradually draws Isolde to the couch.]Listen to me! Come! Sit here!

The Wikipedia article on Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila says of the libretto, "Delilah is portrayed as a manipulative, conniving, ruthless woman bent on revenge." This is true, I guess, especially if one is speaking specifically of the libretto. But especially if we incorporate the music, and listen to the great monologue that opens Act II, the one time we see the character by herself, and thus presumably totally truthful, while it's certainly true that she's "bent on revenge," what I hear goes way beyond manipulativeness, connivingness, and ruthlessness.

To begin with we're going to listen again to the recording of the recitative and aria by Maria Callas, which we heard originally along with performances by Christa Ludwig and Marjana Lipovšek. Then in recordings that include the atmospheric Act II Prelude, we'll hear another round of Dalilas, all but one of whom (Waltraud Meier) we've heard before in other excerpts.

The stage represents the valley of Sorek in Palestine. At left, the dwelling of DALILA, fronted by a light portico and surrounded by Asiatic plants and luxuriant vines. Night is beginning, and becomes complete through the course of the act.

Prelude

At curtain rise, DALILA is seated on a rock near the portico of her house, seeming lost in reverie.

DALILA: Samson, seeking my presence again,this evening is to come to this place.Here is the hour of vengeance,which must satisfy our gods.

Love! come aid my weakness!Pour the poison in his breast!Make it happen that, conquered by my artfulness,Samson is in fetters tomorrow!In vain would he wish to be ableto chase me out of his soul, to banish me.Could he extinguish the flamethat memory feeds?He is mine! my slave!My brothers fear his wrath;I, along among all, I defy himand hold him at my knees!

Love! come aid my weakness!Pour the poison in his breast!Make it happen that, conquered by my artfulness,Samson is in fetters tomorrow!Against strength is useless,and he, the strong among the strong,he, who broke his people's chains,will succumb to my efforts.

We've heard the Philistine seductress Dalila in her very public pose in the second scene of Act I as the adoring admirer of the Israelite conquering hero Samson, and we've heard her alone at the start of Act II, in front of her home in the Sarek valley, on the other side of the mountains from Gaza, voluptuously invoking love to aid her weakness in the destruction of Samson. There was something mysterious going on there -- anger, certainly, but I argued for deep hurt -- but nothing, I think, to prepare us for what comes out in the ensuing scene with the High Priest, who has huffed and puffed his way across the mountain on the urgent mission to recruit her to extracti from Samson the secret of his superhuman strength. Here's how this scene winds up.

DALILA: It is necessary, to assuage my hatred,it is necessary that my power enchain him!I want him, conquered by love,to bend his brown in his turn!HIGH PRIEST: I want, to assuage my hatred,I want for Dalila to enchain him!It is necessary that, conquered by love,he bend his brow in his turn!DALILA: It is necessary, to assuage my hatred,it is necessary that my power enchain him!I want him, conquered by love,to bend his brown in his turn!HIGH PRIEST: In you alone is my hope;to you the honor of vengeance! to you!I want, to assuage my hatred, &c.DALILA: To me the honor of vengeance!to me the honor! to me!It is necessary, to assuage my hatred, &c.DALILA and the HIGH PRIEST: Let him bend his brow in his turn!Let us unite! we two!Let us unite! we two!Death! Death! Death! Death! Death!Death to the leader of the Hebrews!HIGH PRIEST: Samson, you were telling me, is to return to this place?DALILA: I expect him!HIGH PRIEST: I'll distance myself; he could surprise us.Soon I'll come back by secret paths.The fate of my people, o woman, is in your hands.Tear away from his heart the impenetrable shieldand discover the secret that hides from us his strength.[He exits.]

Monday, June 17, 2002

[6/17/2012] Meet Saint-Saëns's Dalila (continued)

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The Samson et Dalila Act I trio "Je viens célébrer la victoire" is sung by Louise Homer, Enrico Caruso, and Marcel Journet in this famous Victor recording made in Camden, NJ, on Feb. 10, 1919, with the Victor Orchestra conducted by Josef Pasternack.

DALILA [to SAMSON]: I come to celebrate the victoryof the one who reigns in my heart.Dalila wishes for her conqueroreven more love than glory!O my beloved, follow my stepstoward Sorek, the sweet valley,to that isolated dwellingwhere Dalila opens her arms to you!SAMSON [aside]: O God! you who see my weakness,take pity on your servant!Close my eyes, close my heartto the sweet voice that presses me.DALILA: For you I have crowned my browwith dark clusters of myrtle,and put roses of Sharonin my ebony hair.OLD HEBREW: Turn away, my son, from her path!Avoid and fear this foreign girl!

[And so on . . .]

IT TOOK US WEEKS (IT ONLY FELT LIKE MONTHS)TO GET HALFWAY THROUGH ACT I OF SAMSON

NOW, AS WE ATTACK THE SECOND SCENE OF ACT I,LET'S BACK UP TO THE HIGH PRIEST'S TIRADE

So we had the High Priest of Dagon entering the scene to find the mighty Abimélech struck down dead at the hand of the rampaging Hebrews, and laying a curse forever on "the race of the children of Israel." Following the orchestral Daybreak, the older Hebrews sing a "Hymn of joy, hymn of deliverance."

HIGH PRIEST: Accursed be forever the raceof the children of Israel!I want to erase all trace of them,to soak them in bile!Accursed be the one who guides them!I will crush underfoothis broken bones, his parched throat,without a shake of pity!

Daybreak (Orchestra)

OLD HEBREWS: Hymn of joy! Hymn of deliverance!Rise up to the Eternal!He deigned in his omnipotenceto succor Israel!By him the weak have become mastersof the strong who oppressed them.He conquered the proud ones and the traitorwho once abused him.

The old Hebrew known just as "an Old Hebrew" (another single-scene bass, like Abimélech), who feels obliged to regale the just-entered Samson and the other younger Hebrews with some of his dire Old Testament-type wisdom of caution and warning. After which: "The doors of the temple of Dagon open. Dalila enters, followed by Philistine women holding garlands of flowers in their hands. After they sing their greeting to spring, we hear Dalila launch her assault on Samson, declaring, "I come to celebrate the victory of the one who reigns in my heart," which will blossom (in a moment) into a trio with Samson and the Old Hebrew.

OLD HEBREWS: He struck us down in his anger,for we had defied his laws.Later, our foreheads in the dust,toward him we raised our voice.He told his beloved tribes:"Rise up! March into combat!"I am the Lord of Hosts [armies],I am the strength of your arms.OLD HEBREWS and THE OLD HEBREW:He has come toward us in our distress,for his sons are dear to him.Let the universe jump with joy.He has broken our irons!Hymn of joy! Hymn of deliverance!Rise up toward the Eternal!He deigned in his omnipotenceto succor Israel.

PHILISTINE WOMEN: Here is spring, bringing us flowersto adorn the brows of the conquering warriors!Let's mingle our tones with the perfume of barely opened roses.Let's sing with the bird, my sisters!Beauty, gift of heaven, springtime of our days,sweet charm of the eyes, hope of loves,penetrate our hearts, pour into our soulsyour gentle flames!Let's love, sisters, let's love always!DALILA [to SAMSON]: I come to celebrate the victoryof the one who reigns in my heart.Dalila wishes for her conqueroreven more love than glory!O my beloved, follow my stepstoward Sorek, the sweet valley,to that isolated dwellingwhere Dalila opens her arms to you!

DALILA [to SAMSON]: I come to celebrate the victoryof the one who reigns in my heart.Dalila wishes for her conqueroreven more love than glory!O my beloved, follow my stepstoward Sorek, the sweet valley,to that isolated dwellingwhere Dalila opens her arms to you!SAMSON [aside]: O God! you who see my weakness,take pity on your servant!Close my eyes, close my heartto the sweet voice that presses me.DALILA: For you I have crowned my browwith dark clusters of myrtle,and put roses of Sharonin my ebony hair.OLD HEBREW: Turn away, my son, from her path!Avoid and fear this foreign girl!

Once again we hear from the kvetching Old Hebrew, with predictably dark forebodings. (Sure, sure, he happens to be right. But since when do prophets of doom get any credit for being right? What world do you live in?)

DALILA: Spring that begins,bringing hopeto amorous hearts,your breath that passeserases from the earthunhappy days.Everything burns in our souls,and the sweet flamecomes to dry our tears;you restore to the earth,by a sweet mystery,fruit and flowers.In vain am I beautiful!My heart full of love,weeping for the unfaithful one,awaits his return!Living in hope,my desolate heartholds onto memoryof past happiness.[Addressing SAMSON]At falling nightI will go, a sad lover,and sit in the stream,awaiting him, weeping!OLD HEBREW: The spirit of evil has led this womanonto your path to disturb your peace of mind.Flee the burning flame of her glances!It's a poison that consumes the bones!DALILA: Chasing away my sadness,if he comes one day,for him my tenderness.[DALILA while singing regains the steps of the temple and glances provocatively at SAMSON; the latter seems under her spell. He hesitates; he struggles and betrays the unquiet in his soul.]For him my tenderness.And the sweet delightthat a burning loveholds onto for his return!

Well, we did make it all the way through Act I. But if the idea was to tie up with my talk in Friday's preview of Dalila as "a lady weighted by a heap of hurt," well, we didn't get there. It's certainly not in evidence in any of today's music. The point, though, is that it's not until the Act II opening monologue that we encounter Dalila alone. There's no reason not to assume that everything that comes before (and after, in the case of "Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix") represents her playing angles of one sort or another.

And I have to say that in claiming Dalila as a victim of sorts here I'm flying without a net -- there's not a lot in the libretto to back it up. But I say there sure is in the music. I guess it's going to take another installment to explain that. And we'll hear then, as promised, from that "Irish cousin" of hers I mentioned Friday.

Note that in these excerpts, not only do we have the Act II Prelude before the aria, but afterward we hear the orchestral transition up to the actual entrance of the High Priest. In this brief passage we hear a continuation of Saint-Saëns's musical characterization of the approaching thunderstorm -- surely begun in the Act II Prelude -- of the approaching thunderstorm, which will run through Dalila's great scenes with the High Priest and then Samson.

The stage represents the valley of Sorek in Palestine. At left, the dwelling of DALILA, fronted by a light portico and surrounded by Asiatic plants and luxuriant vines. Night is beginning, and becomes complete through the course of the act.

Prelude

At curtain rise, DALILA is seated on a rock near the portico of her house, seeming lost in reverie.

DALILA: Samson, seeking my presence again,this evening is to come to this place.Here is the hour of vengeance,which must satisfy our gods.

Love! come aid my weakness!Pour the poison in his breast!Make it happen that, conquered by my artfulness,Samson is in fetters tomorrow!In vain would he wish to be ableto chase me out of his soul, to banish me.Could he extinguish the flamethat memory feeds?He is mine! my slave!My brothers fear his wrath;I, along among all, I defy himand hold him at my knees!

Love! come aid my weakness!Pour the poison in his breast!Make it happen that, conquered by my artfulness,Samson is in fetters tomorrow!Against strength is useless,and he, the strong among the strong,he, who broke his people's chains,will succumb to my efforts.

Piano Concerto No. 4 in C minor, Op. 44, by Camille Saint-Saëns is the composer's most structurally innovative piano concerto. It follows the typical concerto format of three movements, but the central Andante section is unusually attached seamlessly to the preceding Allegro moderato. In fact, the entire work can be played as a unified whole. It is technically divided into two sections:

Allegro moderato - AndanteAllegro vivace - Andante - Allegro

It begins with a gently mischievous chromatic subject, heard in dialogue between the strings and piano soloist, and continues in a creative thematic development similar to Saint-Saëns's Third Symphony. The composer demonstrates brilliant skill in employing the piano and orchestra almost equally. In the Andante, he introduces a hymn-like theme with the woodwinds (also strikingly similar to the tune of the Third Symphony's final section), and uses this as a platform on which he builds a series of variations before bringing the movement to a quiet close.

The Allegro vivace begins as a playful and cunning scherzo (although still in C minor), deriving its main theme from the original chromatic subject in the beginning of the first movement. There is a bold switch to 6/8 time, and the piano leads the orchestra into a new brief but energetic theme, oddly resembling the popular song "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo." Eventually the orchestra moves into a lush Andante, recapitulating the chorale-style melody. Rather suddenly, the piano climbs up to a flurry of double-octave trills and a climactic trumpet fanfare, leading to the jubilant finale based once more on the hymn theme played at triple time. The concerto concludes with the piano, in cadenza-like cascades, guiding the orchestra to a fortissimo close.

The piano concerto was premièred in 1875 with the composer as the soloist. The concerto is dedicated to Antoine Door, a professor of piano at the Vienna Conservatory. It continues to be one of Saint-Saëns's most popular piano concertos, second only to the Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor. This highly inventive work, along with many others, does much to refute the caricature of a purely reactionary Saint-Saëns.

NOW LET'S LISTEN TO THE PIECE

It's intriguing how commentators confidently break the composer's two-movement form into three, or maybe four, movements. Might we consider the possibility that what he actually had in mind was, you know, two fairly unusually put-together movements? I would also suggest listening for elements that sound distinctly French (for example, generally when the soloist goes into dizzying overdrive), and elements that, you know don't, that sound, perhaps, Germanic -- or maybe specifically Viennese.

The breathless-toned mysterious tone conductor Sakari Oramo brings to the opening of the concerto in the Hyperion recording recalls the performance styles of the 1944 and 1955 recordings we hear below, and Stephen Hough is certainly a capable partner in their attractive and widely admired Hyperion set, which includes the performances of Africa and Wedding Cake we heard in Friday night's preview and two more short Saint-Saëns works for piano and orchestra. I like the set too, but it seems to me to represent a limited, not-very-dramatic perspective on the music.

Compare the much broader range of musical values on display in Eugene Ormandy's performance (from which we heard a snatch of the second movement in the June 1 Sunday Classics preview). I also enjoy the gravitas André Previn hears in the music. Both Philippe Entremont and Jean-Philippe Collard acquit themselves honorably, but the performances don't seem to me their shows.

Again I've arranged our three performances from quickest to slowest. I like both the Rogé-Dutoit and the Malikova-Sanderling but am most taken by the Ciccolini-Baudo. Maybe their EMI set of the five Saint-Saëns piano concertos has been so readily available (in the LP era it was long available in the U.S. as an extremely attractive budget-priced Seraphim set) that it's rather consistently underrated, it seems to me.

Three French pianists, two French orchestras-and-conductors. (When Robert Casadesus rerecorded the concerto in stereo, it would again be with the New York Philharmonic, this time under Leonard Bernstein. Makes you wonder if he had some sort of rule like "I only record Saint-Saëns 4 with the New York Philharmonic.")

I'm afraid I've never gotten the special qualities so many music lovers hear in the playing of Alfred Cortot, and while I don't have a problem with anything he does in the 1935 recording, most of its interest for me is in the dynamic as well as spacious conducting of the pre-Boston Charles Munch. (Munch in fact rerecorded Saint-Saëns 4 during his Boston, with Alexander Brailowsky, though unfortunatelly only in mono -- a recording I've never heard.)

Note the lighter-textured but wonderfully mysterious tone that conductors Artur Rodzinski and Louis Fourestier set at the opening of the 1944 and 1955 recordings, and then the wonderful contrast of Casadesus's solidly commanding solo responses. Jeanne-Marie Darré, by contrast, plays in the same mystery-laden tone. This is our most "French" performance of the concerto, and a highly effective one.

At 88, Arthur Rubinstein plays the sparkling middle movement (Allegro scherzando) and the concluding Presto of Saint-Saëns's Piano Concerto No. 2 with André Previn conducting the London Symphony, in April 1975.

Saturday, June 08, 2002

[6/8/2012] Preview: Saint-Saëns sure didn't write the same piano concerto five times (continued)

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The poster has added the score to his favorite recording of Saint-Saëns's Wedding Cake caprice-valse, by pianist Daniel Chorzempa with the Rotterdam Philharmonic conducted by Edo de Waart. ("The tempo is brisk," he says, "but never sounds rushed, maintaining that waltz-like elegance, and the technical clarity of the playing is excellent." I think we can agree that the performance is very speedy. One commenter loves how the performance brings out the humor of the piece; another commenter points out that there's no reason to think that the composer intended the piece to be humorous.)

BESIDES THE FIVE CONCERTOS, SAINT-SAËNS WROTEA BUNCH OF OTHER WORKS FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA

Among which the most popular are the "valse-caprice" Wedding Cake and the "fantasy" Africa. This is another rather uncommon Sunday Classics instance of sharing music I honestly haven't listened to much. The usual practice here is that I'm sharing music for which I have special affections, but this seemed a good opportunity for me to listen along with you.

Here's a bit -- and I do mean "a bit" -- of background, provided by EMI annotator John Lade:

The Wedding Cake caprice-valse was composed in 1885 in honour of the marriage of a friend, the pianist Caroline Montigny-Rémaury. It is a fairly slight piece but ha great charm and is full of pianistic felicities. Saint-Saëns was always fascinated by Africa (he died in Algiers while holidaying there in 1921) and in 1891 composed the Africa fantasy, a colourful work introducing indigenous rhythms and ending with a wildly exhilarating coda based on a Tunisian folksong.

Monday, June 03, 2002

New York Concert Artists put together this promotional video for last year's Evenings of Piano Concerti (EPC III).

OKAY, LET'S JUST GO AHEADAND LISTEN TO THE CONCERTO

MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 12 in A, K. 414

i. Allegro

When I described K. 414 as a "second-tier" Mozart piano concerto -- trying to make clear that this didn't mean that I think it's second-rate -- maybe the simplest way to explain is that there's nothing immediately or automatically grabbing about the musical materials. It's left to the performers to make those materials grab and hold the listener's attention.

And again, though not quite as starkly contrasting, we have a "more impulsive" and a "more measured" performance. (The tempo marking, note, isn't one or another form of the typically rondo-esque "allegro" but a more moderate Allegretto.)